My favorite actor is Humphrey Bogart, so anything of his is top notch fare. One of my all time fav's is the Maltese Falcon.

I've read the book (loved it), still haven't seen the movie. I'll have to order that soon._______One movie I've really dug lately is the remake of 'True Grit' - the music, cinematography, the story - it all flows beautifully. The original is great too, but I really liked the remake.

The repartee between Bogey and Sidney Greenstreet is classic. Also, I loved both versions of True Grit and that's something when Jeff Bridges can be compared with John Wayne.

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The Brianista Prayer

Oh BrianThou Art In Hawthorne,Harmonied Be Thy nameYour Kingdom Come,Your Steak Well Done,On Stage As It Is In Studio,Give Us This Day, Our Shortenin' BreadAnd Forgive Us Our Bootlegs,As We Also Have Forgiven Our Wife And Managers,And Lead Us Not Into Kokomo,But Deliver Us From Mike Love.Amen. ---hypehat

Oh, speaking of Woody Allen, Annie Hall is another one of my favorites. I never get tired of that one.

And a lot of Coen Bros movies being mentioned, I love almost everything they've done.

You're speaking my language here. Annie Hall is probably my favourite movie, when push comes to shove. Very funny moments, of course, but also very endearing and emotional moments that convey in some unusual way, the nature of a very particular kind of relationship. More over, the movie does things that I've never been able to see another movie accomplish so well - the anti-linear structure, the mixing of genres, and the general playing around with the conventions of cinema, like his use of subtitles.

My favourite films, typically are European and Asian films from the late 40s/early 50s into the mid-60s (good examples: Umberto D, Wild Strawberries, 8 1/2, L'Avventurra, Blow Up, Masculin Feminin, Contempt, The 400 Blows, Rashomon) and then American films from about 1967 to 1980 (good examples: Annie Hall, Manhattan, The Graduate, 2001, Nashville, Days of Heaven, Woman Under the Influence, Cuckoo's Nest). The contemporary movies that I like now are the ones that mostly keep the spirit of the American 70s alive - movies by people like the Coens, Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, PT Anderson, Charlie Kaufman, and so on.

Thought this might be a good place to say RIP to Karen Black who died today and who appeared in so many of those great American "independent" films - Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, Cisco Pike, Nashville, etc.

Thought this might be a good place to say RIP to Karen Black who died today and who appeared in so many of those great American "independent" films - Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, Cisco Pike, Nashville, etc.

Aw, that's too bad. I really enjoy some of her stuff...Easy Rider is a classic.RIP

Thought this might be a good place to say RIP to Karen Black who died today and who appeared in so many of those great American "independent" films - Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, Cisco Pike, Nashville, etc.

Aw, that's too bad. I really enjoy some of her stuff...Easy Rider is a classic.RIP

Also, for a brief time (in 1967) Karen was a member of The New Christy Minstrels.

My favorite movie from last year was Like Someone in Love, which I actually liked quite a bit more than Certified Copy, even though the consensus seems to be the other way around. i enjoyed the formal games that Kiarostami played with Like Someone in Love, particularly in setting up really strange looking shots and making you wonder why he ever thought to frame the action this way, only to reveal the reason several minutes later. I also appreciated the relationship it had with Ozu's late marriage cycle films.

Two of my all-time favorite filmmakers are Frank Borzage (Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, Lucky Star, Man's Castle, Three Comrades, The Mortal Storm, and Moonrise) and John Woo (A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Hard Boiled, and Face/Off). It seems like an odd pair, but I love both of them for their stylistic baroqueness and their unironic romanticism.

I'm also quite fond of Japanese cinema from about the 1920s through the end of the 1960s. Nothing against Kurosawa or Kinoshita, but I tend to prefer the older generation of Mizoguchi, Ozu, Gosho, Shimizu, Naruse, Yamanaka, et al, who I think were somewhat more consistent and more stylistically unique. I also love Suzuki Seijun. Of the New Wave directors, Yoshida Yoshishige/Kiju is probably my favorite; Oshima is good too, but I'm less fond of Imamura Shohei.

Some other favorite films:A Brighter Summer DayThe Lady From ShanghaiBigger Than LifeDay of WrathPlaytime (pretty much any Jacques Tati movie, really)Man of the West (most of Anthony Mann's other westerns)Pretty much anything Robert Bresson made after Diary of a Country Priest, but I have a special affection for his late films in particular

Some pages ago Paulos started the unfavorite movie listing. I'll rejoin by naming "The Exorcist". Believe it or not, I never saw it before, but I heard plenty about its greatness. So I watched it today &... found the opening scene the most tolerable. The rest is so awfully boring, all the episodes with the Karras guy, Silvester Stallone wannabe. Also didn't get what's the point with Sharon, secretary or whoever of the girl's mother. She didn't help much, even left the girl alone to go shopping. Wanna see laughable racist fight started by a weirdo? Check. Bunch of dull old men in white arranging a round table? Check. Finally & most importantly, wanna see hilarious "Chucky bride" face? Check & check. The only saving grace were Merrin (the brilliant Max von Sydow), mother, another mother (Greek woman) &, of course, Lieutenant Kinderman who added the humor to this "horror" film [airquotes]. So, on a count of the above, I give "The Exorcist" 4/10.

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Short notice: the cat you see to the left is the best. Not counting your indoor cat who might have habit sitting at your left side when you post at SmileySmile.

A band called The Beach Boys are mostly going to be a fun in the sun-themed group. And that has, is, and will always be just as it should. There needs to be ONE classic band that isn't a pack of endless "artistic" moan. All people wanna do is make The Beach Boys into another Beatles they are less tired of.And, for anyone who has actually experienced them, surfing and cars carry PLENTY of emotion and life experience. They can carry as much metaphor as any Van Dyke Parks clever epistle.

Agreed on many of your directors, Ovi. To MagnoliaI would add (without thinking too hard):

The Last Waltz2001: A Space OdysseyOnce Upon a Time in the WestTommyAlexander NevskyThe Festival ExpressCitizen KaneThe Full MontyIntouchables

I'll probably revise this list some time...

2001 would definitely be my 2nd Kubrick choice, his most influential. Dislike The Last Waltz though, and I say this is a huge Band fan. Polished, sing-along arena-rock, way too big in scope and execution for a group that prided itself in minimalism and DIY attitude. Some good performances though.

A band called The Beach Boys are mostly going to be a fun in the sun-themed group. And that has, is, and will always be just as it should. There needs to be ONE classic band that isn't a pack of endless "artistic" moan. All people wanna do is make The Beach Boys into another Beatles they are less tired of.And, for anyone who has actually experienced them, surfing and cars carry PLENTY of emotion and life experience. They can carry as much metaphor as any Van Dyke Parks clever epistle.